


One Steve Too Many, and a Timely Uttered, I Love You

by Calacious



Series: The Bar Saga: A Variety of Tales [1]
Category: Hawaii Five-0 (2010), The Avengers (2012)
Genre: Angst, Crack, Emotional Hurt/Comfort, First Kiss, Humor, Kissing, M/M, everything works out in the end, first time saying I love you, questionable - not quite infidelity - in the form of a chaste kiss
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2013-03-18
Updated: 2013-03-18
Packaged: 2017-12-05 17:08:46
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 5,568
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/725753
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Calacious/pseuds/Calacious
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Steve McGarrett is at a conference in New York City. He misses Danny something fierce. He meets Tony Stark at a bar, and the man can't stop talking about 'his' Steve. Steve ends up taking Tony back to his hotel room because he fears that, drunk and left to his own devices, the superhero won't be safe on the streets.</p>
            </blockquote>





	One Steve Too Many, and a Timely Uttered, I Love You

**Author's Note:**

  * For [Gadhar](https://archiveofourown.org/users/Gadhar/gifts).



> Written for the following writing challenge issued by a friend: "Bar meeting- Tig, Tony Stark, Fonz, Bobby, Steve, Juice, Han Solo, and that main guy from Sentinel (I forget his name) Go."
> 
> I apologize beforehand if there are any grammatical errors in this story,but I lead a busy life and sometimes I don't have the time to be as thorough in checking over a story as I previously did. I'm happy with that situation, as to me, it's more important to create through writing rather than making sure every little comma is in place. I'll do the latter when someone is paying me to publish, but for now, my primary goal is to indulge myself as a writer and hopefully, as a bonus, entertain you as a reader.

  
Steve took a sip of the dark amber liquid and grimaced. The bitterness of his drink helped keep his even darker thoughts at bay. A man sidled up to him at the bar and sat on the stool next to him. Steve raised his mug in greeting and took another long swallow of the lager. It had a distinct bite to it that he liked, and he wondered idly if he'd be able to find it in Hawaii.

****

He frowned when the man next to him inadvertently jostled him as he tried to settle himself on the barstool. Steve assessed the man out of the corner of his eye. Judging by the difficulty he was having just trying to sit on the stool properly, the man was already more than a little tipsy. Steve shook his head and turned away.

****

He just wanted a quiet evening away from the hotel where he had been staying for the past week. Interagency training, my ass, Steve thought as he took another sip of his beer. More like interagency spying and intellectual torture.

****

He shook his head as he thought about Danny and bit his bottom lip hard at the images that his mind conjured up. Images that would do him no good in a crowded bar on the mainland.

****

His partner, in more ways than one, was spending the week with his daughter. Steve had approved the leave, but now he regretted it, and for completely selfish reasons. He wanted Danny with him.

****

Steve took another swig of the beer, letting the bitterness wash over him, hoping that it would ease some of the tension that was coiled in his belly. He groaned and hissed as he adjusted his position on the stool.

****

Laughter, almost as bitter as the beer he was drinking, washed over him and Steve turned to glare at the man sitting next to him. The man grinned at him, showing off a full set of perfectly straight teeth. They were also pearly white.

****

Steve tried to duck out of the way as the drunk lifted an arm and swung it around his shoulder. Either the man was extremely coordinated and had quick reflexes even when inebriated or Steve was a little off his game. The man pulled him into a one armed hug, which was vise like in it's strength and Steve nearly toppled from his seat, but the man kept him upright.

****

"So, you too?" The man gave Steve a knowing look and squeezed his shoulder.

****

Steve looked at the man as though he was crazy, and he seriously feared that the man was crazy.  He wondered how he was going to extricate himself from the man's iron-like grip without getting into an altercation, or drawing too many eyes their way.

****

The man nodded and tapped Steve on the head. "You look like a sharp fellow. Could probably have anyone that you wanted, in this bar, anywhere in the world, but the one you want ain't here, am I right?"

****

Before it fully registered to him what he was doing, Steve nodded, and then he scowled when the dark-haired man's smile widened. The man squeezed him a little tighter and then, thankfully, let go, giving Steve room enough to breathe and take another sip of his now lukewarm beer.

****

"Tony Stark," the man said, holding out his hand.

****

Steve shook his head and eyed the billionaire playboy's hand dubiously, yet he gripped the other man's hand and gave it a firm shake. His partner would never believe what he'd missed out on when he returned to Hawaii.

****

A lesser secure man might be jealous of his boyfriend's blatant crush on a superhero billionaire, but Steve knew there was really nothing to fear. Danny was his, and Steve was going to milk this chance meeting of one of Danny's idols for all it was worth.

****

Returning to Hawaii with Tony Stark's autograph was going to more than make up for the week long lack of sex. Steve grinned as he imagined what Danny would do to 'thank' him for getting Iron Man's signature.

****

"Steve."

****

Tony's grip grew lax and the man paled considerably, as though he'd seen a ghost. Steve frowned in concern and immediately dismissed the voice inside his head that sounded an awful lot like Danny when the voice accused him of having aneurysm face. There was nothing wrong with showing concern for a fellow human being after all.

****

Tony snorted and downed a tumbler of an amber liquid that was unmistakably whiskey. The dark haired man nodded his head and smirked.

****

"Figures," he said, almost speaking to himself, "I flee one Steve only to find myself in the company of yet another. What is it with me and Steves? Can't I have a Steve-free moment?" Tony rolled his eyes and then studied Steve shrewdly for a moment.

****

"Military too," he said, sighing, and signaling for another drink. "What is it with you army types? All big, bulging muscles, and other parts..." Tony waved his hands around as he spoke and Steve was hard-pressed not to correct the man as he would Danny. He did squirm a little when Tony's gaze fell on his crotch.

****

Steve cleared his throat. "I'm not sure that I follow."

****

Tony gave him a sad look, like the man seriously saw him as some kind of puppy dog, and patted him on the arm. "Of course you don't, Steve. Why would you be able to follow the mad ravings of a washed up alcoholic, or what was it that the latest newspaper headings called me?"

****

Steve frowned and shrugged. He really didn't follow celebrity pages. "Don't really pay attention to the paper," he explained.

****

"No, no, of course you don't. What Steve does? Not Rogers, not you." Tony knocked back another drink and then requested two more.

****

Several drinks and a strange one-sided conversation, that Steve found hard to follow, later, and the Navy SEAL was escorting Tony Stark back to his hotel room because he knew that Danny would never forgive him if he'd let the man stumble out of the bar and into oncoming traffic. Steve was hard-pressed to see why he shouldn't just let it happen and wondered where Tony's Steve was. Surely the man knew better than to let Tony wander the streets on his own.

****

Steve propped Tony up against the wall, keeping one hand on the inebriated man so that he wouldn't fall, and fished around in his cargo pants for the hotel key card. Tony had been less than helpful when Steve had asked him where he was staying, and he didn't want to leave Iron Man out in the street when he was so vulnerable to attack. He doubted the self-proclaimed genius even had his famous suit with him. It would be easy pickings for one of the superhero's enemies, and that was something he couldn't have on his conscious, Danny's hero worship of the billionaire aside.

****

Personally, Steve preferred Captain America, who was apparently the Steve that Tony missed so keenly. He wondered how the man put up with Tony on a daily basis, what with the way the man complained about the military and got the different branches confused.

****

Then he shook his head and chuckled as his mind conjured up an image of Danny, ranting, hands flailing as he questioned him about everything from his sanity to what he had hidden in his many pockets. Danny's constant ragging and teasing about his military training kept him on his toes and was something Steve rarely tired of. Perhaps it was the same with Tony and his, "...very own, patent pending, military Steve."

****

As he ushered Tony into his room, the man pawed at his pockets and mumbled something incoherent. Steve could imagine what the man was saying, because he knew what Danny would have said. It was eerie how much alike Danny and Tony were.

****

"I bet these come in real handy. Wonder if I can convince my Steve to wear them? Hmm...I'll have to configure him a whole new uniform..." Tony trailed off, and swayed toward the lone bed in the room.

****

Steve carefully steered him toward the bathroom instead. The man stunk like a brewery, in the middle of a heat wave.

****

"I think a shower is in order first," he said.

****

"Ooh, shower." Tony sounded like a little kid in a candy store and Steve wondered how he was going to manage getting Tony into the shower as the man didn't seem to be able to stand on his own.

****

He really had no desire to see Tony in his boxers and hoped that the man could muster enough energy to shower on his own. This was not something he wished to explain to Danny.

****

Steve sat Tony down on the toilet seat, quickly righting him when it looked like he was going to topple. "Think you can manage the rest on your own?"

****

Tony looked down at his lap, then up at Steve, his eyes were huge as saucers, and then he swallowed convulsively and nodded. "Yeah."

****

Steve hesitated just at the door, and inwardly groaned as he watched Tony fumble with the buttons on his shirt. It was clear to Steve that Tony could not shower on his own. The man couldn't even undress himself.

****

Taking a deep, fortifying breath, Steve returned to the bathroom and knelt in front of Tony. The man looked so sad and lost. Completely hopeless.

****

He reminded Steve of Danny when the man was facing the harsh reality that he could lose his daughter, Grace, for good, if his ex-wife was allowed to take her back to the mainland. It broke his heart, and he knew that, though Tony wasn't facing anything like that, the man's heart was hurting, just like Danny's had been. Steve had an inkling that it had something to do with Tony's Steve.

****

As he worked the buttons free on Tony's shirt, he began formulating a plan. Steve felt stupid for not having thought of it before, but he chalked it up to his own state of partial inebriation and the aching hole in his heart because he was missing Danny. Being in Tony's company had temporarily eased some of that ache.

****

Steve worked the shirt off of Tony and tried not to stare at the glowing light in the center of the man's chest. It was mesmerizing. He'd heard about it, forgot what it was called, knew that Danny would give him one of those looks that made him feel like a complete moron, even as he lectured him and explained what the glowing light coming from Tony's chest was, and how it kept the man alive. He'd have to ask Danny about it later.

****

Tony grabbed Steve's hand, all drunken clumsiness vanishing in that moment, and pressed Steve's hand, palm down, over the pulsing light on his chest. It was warm and Steve could feel a thrum, like electricity, running through his palm, down his arm, up to his shoulder. It was hypnotic and Steve held his breath.

****

His eyes were drawn to Tony's, faltering briefly on Tony's parted lips. There was a mixture of longing, loneliness and lust in Tony's eyes. That, combined with the pulsing in Tony's chest, threw Steve off-kilter.

****

Before he knew what he was doing, his muscles reacting on instinct to signals that Tony was giving off, Steve held Tony's face in his hands and he was leaning forward, brushing his lips over Tony's. The contact was brief, chaste, yet it felt to Steve as though he'd been burned. His lips stung and Tony's head jerked back as though he'd been slapped.

****

Both of them were panting, raising shaky fingers to their lips, and staring at each other as though they'd just met. Tony's eyes were dilated, and Steve closed his eyes, pushing his fingers into them, trying to get his swirling emotions under control.

****

He rested his forehead against Tony's, breath hitching, heart beating frantically in his chest. He wanted Danny.

****

"Steve?" Tony's voice was uncertain, small, like that of a lost child. Except neither of them were children, and they were playing with fire. "What are we doing here?"

****

Steve pulled back with a stifled groan and grimaced as he forced himself to look Tony in the eye. "Nothing," he said hoarsely.

****

Tony laughed. It was a brittle, harsh bark of a sound. He gave Steve a lopsided grin and ran his fingers through his hair, making it stick up all over the place. It was a far cry from how Danny kept his hair -immaculate, not a single strand out of place, save for when it was mussed by sleep.  That's how Steve liked it best and he had to turn away from Tony.

****

"I got it from here soldier boy," Tony said softly, pushing Steve away.

****

Not trusting his voice, Steve nodded and stood. He kept his eyes averted as he left the bathroom, leaving the door ajar, just in case Tony lost his footing or something. Steve was feeling more than just a little responsible for the safety of the other man.

****

Steve stood outside the bathroom door and waited until he heard the water running before sneaking into the bathroom. He used every bit of stealth that Danny accused him of possessing to retrieve the cellphone from the pocket of Tony's slacks, and then, on feet which were ninja quiet, he exited the bathroom to put his plan into action.

****

Turning on the phone was more challenging than Steve had thought it would be, but, he persisted and finally managed to conquer the phone. Even more difficult was trying to decipher Tony's nicknames. There was someone listed as, 'Head Honcho,' someone listed as, 'Big Man,' and still others that made Steve wonder what kind of people Tony hung out with other than superheroes. Some names seemed to belong to villains, which was odd.

****

Steve vacillated between a listing of, 'Rocket Man,' and another that Tony simply identified as, 'Cap'. He opted for the latter and prayed that he’d made the right choice as he hit the call button and waited for, ‘Cap,’ to pick up.

****

He didn’t have long to wait, and held his breath as the phone was answered on the second ring with a tired sounding, “What’s wrong Tony?”

****

“Uh, is this Steve, er, Captain Rogers?” Steve was momentarily tongue-tied as he tried to speak to one of his personal heroes. His heart was hammering so hard that he feared Captain America could hear it over the phone line.

****

He was too tired for this and missed Danny terribly, even if his partner's devil was being an ass right now and the angel was being less than helpful. He knew that, if Danny was there, he'd know what to say and do, and that he'd set things to right, including what had happened earlier in the bathroom.

****

"Thank you," Captain America said, and the genuine sincerity in those two quietly spoken words hit Steve like a sucker punch to the gut. "Thank you for looking out for him."

****

"Anytime," Steve said, and he dropped his head into his hands as he ignored devil and angel Dannys' twin smirks. "That is, it's not a big deal."“Yes, this is Captain Rogers,” Captain America no longer sounded tired. He was in full alert mode, and Steve hoped that he could explain things well enough so as not to worry the captain. “Where’s Tony? What have you done to him?”

****

“Uh, it’s not what you think,” Steve said, wishing that he didn’t feel all of five years old right about now as he tried, but failed to picture Captain America in anything other than his full stars and stripes crime-fighting uniform. It was kind of a turn on, and that, given what had just happened between him and Tony, was not something that he needed at the forefront of his mind.

****

“Let me speak to Tony,” the ‘now’ was unspoken, yet Steve felt as though it had been shouted at him over the phone.

****

“Sorry,” Steve winced as he apologized. He ran a hand over the back of his neck and tried to muster some of his innate confidence. “Tony can’t come to the phone right now...” and what the hell was that? He knew exactly how that sounded, and could hear Danny berating him for being an insensitive idiot.

****

“What have you done to him? What do you want?” Captain America sounded cold and businesslike, as though he’d dealt with this kind of thing often. Steve wondered if he had.

****

He thought he'd read something in the papers about Tony Stark being kidnapped a year or so ago. Again, something Danny would know off the top of his head, and not just because of his obsession with superheroes, but because he paid attention to current events.

****

"I promise, it's nothing like that," Steve's words came out in a rush. He could see Danny smirking at him, and wished that his blonde partner was there so that he could hand the phone off to him.

****

"Either put Tony on the phone know, or..."

****

"He's in the shower," Steve blurted out, before things could get any more tense than they already were.

****

He ran a hand down his face and sat down on the bed. He was suddenly bone weary and wished that he could reach across the bed and pull Danny over to nuzzle, his chin in the crook of his partner's neck.

****

"In the shower?" Captain America, and for some reason Steve couldn't think of the man by any other name, asked after a pause.

****

"Yes," Steve said, smiling as Captain America no longer seemed to view him as a threat.

****

"Who are you, and why are you calling me at three in the morning to tell me that Tony is in the shower?"

****

To Steve's trained ear, Captain America sounded hurt more than anything else. He wondered how he'd feel if their roles had been reversed. Probably the same damn way.

****

"This is Commander Steve McGarrett, head of the Hawaii Five-0 task force," Steve stated automatically, ignoring the Danny-like chuckle he could hear in his mind.

****

"Tony's in Hawaii?" Captain America's voice was laced with confusion. "I didn't think..." the man was now speaking mostly to himself, and Steve felt a bit like an intruder, even as his curiosity was piqued.

****

"Uh no, we're in New York. I'm at a police task force seminar. I met Tony at a bar..." Steve felt himself blushing as he realized the implications of his words.

****

He had no idea how Captain America felt about Tony, but from the earful he'd gotten from the billionaire, he knew that Tony loved the other man. He didn't want Captain America to think that anything untoward had happened between himself and Tony. His lips tingled at the memory of their not quite kiss, but he pushed that aside and focused on how he was going to try to fix what he'd said.

****

He pictured Danny as one of those angels on his shoulder. His halo hung a little crookedly, and he was shaking his head and shrugging, as if to say, I've got nothing for you pal. You laid this particular trap and now you're going to have to work your way out of it.

****

Conversely, on his opposite shoulder was a Danny with a set of devil's horns. He was wearing nothing but a toothy grin, and posing in a number of lewd, and completely distracting positions, which was making it difficult for Steve to concentrate and 'fix' things.

****

"What's he done now?" Captain America asked, as though he dreaded the answer.

****

"Uh, nothing," Steve swallowed. It was far more difficult talking to Captain America than he'd thought it would be. "That is, he's had a bit much to drink and I thought..." Steve trailed off, because he had no idea how to put into words what it was that he'd been thinking at the time. At least not in a way that wouldn't have Captain America thinking he had ulterior motives.

****

"I didn't want him to get hurt," Steve finished in a small voice.

********  
  


"Did he ask you to call me?" Captain America sounded as though he was fishing for something. He sounded way insecure for Steve's liking, and he wondered if that was how he sounded when he'd checked up on his partner the other day.

****

"Not exactly," Steve hedged. "You were all he talked about, at the bar, and I figured it would be a safe bet to call you."

****

"That's me, the safe bet," Captain America said in a tone that conveyed just how much those words had hurt him. The superhero sighed and asked what hotel they were at, promising to be there within a half an hour to, "...collect Tony."

****

If he could kick himself, Steve would have. It felt like he'd run over a little girl's lost puppy dog, just as she'd found it.

****

Steve looked at the phone in his hand long after the call had ended. He felt frozen to the spot, not at all prepared to meet a superhero he'd idolized since childhood, particularly after he'd kissed said superhero's boyfriend when the man was in a vulnerable state of mind.  

****

He started, jumping to his feet when Tony laid a hand on his shoulder.

****

"Easy there soldier boy," he said, with a touch of mocking in his voice, just the way that Danny would have said it.

****

Steve shook his head, attempting to clear it. "I called your Steve. He'll be here in..."

****

Tony laughed, cutting him off. "Good, old Captain America to the rescue of his besotted buddy, yet again."

****

Steve frowned. "I thought that you loved him." His voice sounded absurdly childish to his own ears and he looked away, blushing.

****

Tony barked out a harsh laugh that sounded like it hurt. "I do," he said, shrugging, "turns out that Capsicle doesn't love me."

****

Steve looked up sharply at Tony's words, saw the hurt reflected in the other man's eyes, and shook his head. "No, Tony, you're wrong, Captain America does love you."

****

Tony snorted and looked away. "Captain America, you're one of those die hard fans of his, aren't you?" He made a vague gesture with his hand.

****

"Yeah, I'm a fan," Steve said impatiently, he ignored angel Danny's warning to stop speaking, no longer worrying about putting his foot in his mouth. "That has nothing to do with the fact that you are in love with the man, Steve or Captain America, or whatever you want to call him, and he's in love with you."

****

"Oh yeah, and how do you figure that? You spent, what, ten minutes on the phone with the man and suddenly you're an expert on him?" Tony's hands were flying all over the place as he spoke, and Steve mused that he could give Danny a run for his  money in the rant department.

****

"What? What's that look for?" Tony narrowed his eyes at him and Steve crossed his arms over his chest and smiled.

****

"Nothing," Steve said after a moment of watching Tony squirm. "You just remind me of my partner is all. He's a big fan of yours."

****

"Really? That why you kissed me?" Tony asked with a wicked smile. "Because I reminded you of your partner? Or because you wanna share me with him? I'm right in assuming it's a him, aren't I?"

****

Steve felt as though the carpet had been pulled out from under him, and there was no doubt in his mind that he'd paled at Tony's smugly spoken words. But, he'd be damned if he was going to let Tony sidetrack him from the real issue.

****

"Tony, look, I don't know what happened between you and your Steve, but I do know that the man loves you," Steve said.

****

"How the hell do you know that?" Tony backed away from Steve, as though he feared the answer like a physical blow.

****

Before Steve could answer a sharp series of knocks sounded on the door. Tony hung his head, raking his fingers through his wet hair, and Steve went to answer the door.

****

"Where is he?" Captain America, eyes holding dark bags beneath them, dressed in a white tee-shirt and faded blue jeans was a far cry from what Steve had expected the man to look, but he quickly schooled himself and stepped aside to let the other man in.

****

"I'm right here, you big lug," Tony said, sighing.

****

He stood in the middle of the room, holding himself, refusing to look up at either Steve. He looked so vulnerable and afraid that Steve was momentarily lost. Captain America looked similarly broken, and Steve wondered what he should do.

****

Part of him felt like a peeping Tom, and another part of him, the distinctly Danny part of him, felt like he should do something to get the two men together. Even though he had no idea what had transpired between the two men prior to Tony's arrival at the bar, Steve did recognize love when he saw it. And, right now, the love that the two men had for each other was palpable, as was their stubborn refusal to admit it to each other.

****

Steve sighed even as he wondered if this is what Chin and Kono had felt like when it had been he and Danny who had stubbornly refused to recognize their love for each other. It had taken months of them dancing around each other, grousing, posturing, too many drunken one night stands or brawls, before Chin and Kono had finally had enough and all but knocked some sense into them.

****

Steve didn't have months at his disposal, though. At best, he had a few hours. He was scheduled for an early afternoon flight back to Oahu the next day. Scratch that, later that same day. It was now almost 0400 and Steve was feeling every bit of the time as well as the beer that he'd drank earlier.

****

"Look," Steve said, and two sets of eyes snapped to him. Both of them were wary and held a great deal of pain and misgivings.

****

"I don't have a hell of a lot of time here. I'm scheduled to leave at 1300 hours," he ignored Tony's snort and pressed on.

"And, I'm not about to miss that plane for any reason short of a terrorist attack," he held up his hand to forestall whatever Captain America had opened his mouth to say.

****

"The way I see it..." Steve really wished that Chin was here, because he really wasn't all that great with words, and Chin had said everything so perfectly.

"You." Steve pointed at Tony who mouthed, 'Moi?' Steve ignored him.

****

"And you." He pointed at Captain America, who furrowed his brows in confusion.

****

"Are a couple of idiots who can't admit that they love each other." Steve finished with a flourish, thinking that Chin would be proud, even if the cherubic representation of his partner was giving him a dubious look from where he sat, perched on his shoulder.

****

Maybe he'd had a beer or two too many...Steve shook himself from his miniature delusions and regarded the two men standing in front of him.

****

Captain America was looking at his feet, Tony was looking at Steve, his mouth agape, and Steve shook his head and took a deep breath. Though he didn't want to, he realized that he might have to employ Kono's more physical, and slightly violent approach to bring the two men together. Before he could so much as twitch a muscle, however, Captain America closed the space between himself and Tony.

****

Steve let out a breath of air, feeling like he'd very much dodged a bullet. He and Danny were one thing, but bashing Captain America's and Iron Man's heads together, for the sake of love, was a tactic he'd gladly leave to his rookie. He didn't relish being on either man's bad side.

****

"Is it true?" Captain America, Tony's Steve, asked. His hands hovered just above Tony's shoulders, as though afraid to touch.

****

Tony bit his bottom lip and nodded. He stepped into the Captain's space and drew the man's hands down, until they rested on his shoulders.

****

Voyeur much? Miniature angel Danny asked, thwacking him against the temple. Devil Danny's eyebrows were waggling suggestively. Steve closed his eyes to block the both of them, figment of his imagination or not, out.

****

"Is that what you were trying to tell me earlier?"

****

Tony's quietly spoken affirmation was muffled, and Steve opened his eyes just a crack. Captain America's head was tilted downward, Tony's was canted upward. Lip-locked, Tony's hands were cupping Captain America's ass, fingers splayed and gently kneading.

****

Steve's eyes grew wide when he witnessed Captain America's hips snap forward, and then he quickly slammed his eyes shut and stumbled over his own feet as he felt his way, one-handed toward the door. He escaped just in time as he heard a lust-filled groan and a low growl, accompanied by a crash.

****

Steve sighed and settled himself on the floor outside his door. He pulled his cell out of his pocket and steeled himself to make the call that he was dreading. He only hoped that Danny would understand and forgive him for kissing Tony in a moment of weakness.

****

Maybe if he started out by telling him how he'd gotten Captain America and Iron Man to kiss, Danny would be more apt to forgive him. Steve shook his head and snorted as he hit the speed dial for his partner. He steadfastly tried to ignore the sounds coming from his hotel room as he concentrated on the call.

****

"Steven, what's wrong?" Danny's voice was a balm and Steve allowed himself a moment just to let it wash over him before answering.

****

"What makes you think something is wrong?" Steve held his breath, wishing that he didn't have to tell Danny what had happened, and that he hadn't started out the conversation with their usual banter.

****

"The fact that it is four thirty in the morning and your flight leaves New York at one in the afternoon. Even super SEAL ninja warriors like you need some sleep and it's much to early for you to be up, so what is wrong?" Danny sounded worried, which made Steve feel even worse about what he had to tell his partner.

****

"Would you believe me if I told you that Captain America and Iron Man are making out in my bed right now and I'm kind of sitting on the floor, outside of my hotel room?" Steve ignored the voice, which sounded an awful lot like Danny, that accused him of being a chicken.

****

"Don't tell me that you blew up the building that the conference was being held in," Danny said in a manner which indicated that he believed that was exactly what Steve had done.

****

"I promise that I didn't blow up the conference building."

****

"Then, what did you blow up?"

****

"Nothing. I didn't blow up anything. Danny."  Steve took a deep breath, praying that Danny would believe him and fearing that he would. "I kissed Tony Stark."

****

Neither man spoke for the space of a minute. Steve held his breath, feeling like his entire world was about to end. No, he hadn't physically blown up anything, but he feared that he might have blown the best thing that had ever happened to him in forever.

****

"Danny, please say something." You're killing me here.

****

"What do you want me to say?" Danny's voice sounded sad, tired.

****

"I'm sorry Danny, I...I..."

****

"How was it?"

****

"It was hardly anything, just two drunken idiots. Our lips barely touched," Steve said. His heart was going to break.

****

"Let me make sure I'm understanding this correctly Steven," Danny said, "you had an opportunity to kiss Tony Stark, aka Iron Man, and your lips barely touched?"

****

Steve was mildly taken aback that Danny sounded genuinely angry. He gulped in mouthfuls of air.

****

"You're not pulling my leg, are you? Because, that, my friend would not only be cruel, but it would be..."

****

"Danny," Steve interrupted, "I'm not pulling your leg. I kissed the Tony Stark, and, no it didn't mean a thing to me because I love you."

****

"You what?" Danny asked, and Steve blinked, but then felt as though a weight had been lifted from his chest.

****

He and Danny had started dating after Chin and Kono's intervention, but neither man had said those big, three little words before.

****

"I, Steven J. McGarrett, love you, Danny,Danno, Williams. The most stubborn man that I know."

****

"Can you catch an earlier flight out of that concrete jungle?" Danny asked.

****

"We can arrange that," Captain America's voice startled Steve, almost causing him to drop his phone. "Can't we Tony?"

****

"What? Oh, yeah, of course." Tony's hair was a mess and he was tucking his shirt in. "I've got a private jet. I'll take you wherever you want to go."

 **  
**"Is that who I think it is?" Danny asked, and even as Steve answered Danny's rapid-fire questions as he packed, he wondered how he could convince Captain America and Iron Man to come to Oahu so that Danny could meet them.


End file.
